A joint fact-finding team has uncovered widespread human rights violations against Dalit and Adivasi Christians in the Nabarangpur district of Odisha state in eastern India. The team, comprising the members of the Odisha Lawyers Forum and activists, visited the region April 26 and 27 and documented multiple cases of families being barred from burying their dead according to their Christian faith. In several instances, the victims were allegedly coerced into either renouncing their religion or “converting” the deceased to Hinduism in order to gain access to burial spaces, the team reported. Many of the violations have occurred within the Assembly constituency of the state minister for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Minorities, it pointed out.

“The Catholics of Kash-mir are praying incessantly for peace. They pray in churches and homes. And they are marching the streets alongside other people of goodwill, carrying lit torches to shine the light of God and the flame of reconciliation and peace,” said Bishop Ivan Pereira of Jammu-Srinagar, Fides news agency reported on April 29. The diocese has about 9,000 Catholics in the Indian administered Kashmir. The disputed region is administered partly by India and Pakistan. Tensions and diplomatic rows sparked between arch rivals India and Pakistan after armed terrorists killed 26 Indian tourists on the Indian side of Kashmir on April 22. Both countries have withdrawn their diplomats, revoked visas, banned the use of their airspace, and asked armed forces to remain fully prepared. Media reports of exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers have been reported. “We are experiencing a moment of tension and fear that is affecting the entire popu-lation,” Pereira told Fides. “We know there are cease-fire violations in the border area. And according to widespread reports, the Indian police have destroyed several houses belonging to militants and terrorists. This is not an easy time for us here, and many are reliving the night-mare of conflict,” he said.

Leaders of a group involved in ethnic-violence in India’s strife-torn Manipur state have criticized the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its inability to find a solution to the unrest, two years after it broke out. Ahead of the second anniversary of the outbreak of violence on May 3, the Hindu Meitei groups jointly said that New Delhi seems to lack interest in finding an amicable solution to the violence between them and the Kuki-Zo, a Christian majority tribal group. “The Indian government seems to differ in dealing with its citizens in different parts of the country,” said Athouba Khuraijam, convener of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an influential body of Meitei civil society organizations. The Modi government in October last year imposed federal rule after the state government failed to end violence that has claimed 260 lives and displaced more than 60,000 people, mostly Kuki-Zo Christians. “Our fundamental rights and constitutional rights have been violated and suspended for two years,” Khuraijam told the media on April 29 in Imphal state. He said that federal rule has become “ineffective and symbolic.” People expected federal rule to bring law and order, “but instead, we have seen continued chaos.” The violence began on May 3, 2023, when Meitei people attacked a Kuki-Zo march protesting a Meitei demand for indigenous status. Indigenous status would allow the Meiteis, a politically and socially powerful group, to access benefits from the government’s affirmative action plans, including reserva-tions in government jobs and education, among other things, for the disadvantaged.

Archbishop Thomas Menam-parambil has urged Indian Church authorities to be more attentive to the diverse voices within and the needs of the new generation, while cautioning against a gradual decline in faith among Catholics in the country. Archbishop Tho-mas Menamparampil of Guwa-hati, in the northeastern state of Assam, warned Church authorities on May 10 about an impending fate similar to that of the Euro-pean Church, where priestless parishes, empty altars, and pews are sad realities. “Unless timely efforts are made to settle internal conflicts and indifference among the faithful,” the Church in India may face a similar fate in the future, Menamparampil said. The prelate was addressing some 4,800 priests, brothers, and nuns working as missionaries across the globe from the Diocese of Palai in the southern Indian state of Kerala on May 10, at the St Augustine’s Church compound in Pravithanam.

Pope Leo XIV is familiar with India, having visited the country twice and spent nearly a fortnight as prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, according to an Augustinian priest in India. Augustinian Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected pope and took the name Pope Leo XIV, visited several places in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in 2004 and 2006, says Father John Bosco, who teaches at St. Augustine’s Study House in Aluva, central Kerala. In 2004, the Augustinian prior general’s programs included the ordination of six deacons, including the then Deacon Bosco. “I feel so great and blessed,” Bosco told on May 12, adding: “I never imagined the future pope was attending my priestly ordination.” “He is so down to earth and has great concern for the poor and those living in the periphery,” the priest said. “He likes to listen more rather than speak,” Bosco said. “As prior general of the order, he kept visiting houses of the order in as many countries as possible and made it a point to interact with as many people as possible, including the general public,” the Kerala-based priest recalled. During the 2004 visit, he spent time with people in Kerala. However, during his 2006 visit, he toured a school run by the order in Pollachi, a town in Coim-batore district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

On April 30, the Indian government announced a decision that will reverberate through the nation’s social fabric for genera-tions: the upcoming national census will include comprehensive caste data for the first time since 1931. This watershed policy shift, declared by Federal Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, promises to reshape how India understands and addresses its most persistent social divisions. Since indepen-dence, India’s leaders have deliberately avoided counting caste in national censuses, except for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The idealistic hope was that by not measuring caste, India might eventually transcend it. Reality proved more stubborn. Caste has remained a powerful force in Indian life – influencing marriages, job opportunities, political alliances, and educational access. The absence of data did not diminish caste’s impact; it only made addressing caste-based inequalities more difficult. For religious minorities, including Christians, the census represents both promise and uncertainty – a chance for greater visibility and inclusion, but also potential vulnerability in a political climate often charged with religious tensions. For all Indians, it offers a more honest reck-oning with social realities that have persisted despite decades of constitutional commitments to equality. In choosing to count caste after decades of avoidance, India acknowledges a fundamental truth: meaningful progress requires honest confrontation with social realities, however uncomfortable. If imple-mented with integrity and sensitivity to the complex interplay of religious and caste identities, the census could mark a significant step toward the more equitable and inclusive society that India’s founders envisioned.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has condemned the terrorist attack on tourists in India’s Kashmir that killed 26 people and injured 17 others, expressing pain for families who lost their loved ones. Terrorists opened fire on tourists on April 22 in the famed Baisaran meadow, about 5 kilometers from the resort town of Pahalgam in Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The victims include two foreigners – from the UAE and Nepal – and two local people. Indian authorities described the attack as one of the deadliest in recent times, according to media reports. The bishops’ conference’s April 23 statement said: “We strongly condemn this heinous crime against humanity, which has targeted innocent lives, causing immense pain and suffering to families and loved ones.” The bishops’ body called it “a brutal act” and “a grave affront to human dignity and values,” while demanding that those responsible “be brought to justice.” It further appealed to those involved in violence to lay down their arms and embrace the path of peace. “Violence only breeds more violence, and it is high time for us to choose the path of love, compassion, and understanding,” it added. The bishops urged the Christian community across India to pray fervently for the repose of the souls of those who have lost their lives and for the speedy recovery of those injured in the attack. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short an official visit to Saudi Arabia after the attack and returned to New Delhi. He decried the “heinous act” and pledged that the attackers “will be brought to justice.” The deadly attack on tourists coincided with the April 21-24 visit of US Vice President JD Vance. He called it a “devastating terrorist attack.” US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among other world leaders, condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with India. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the “armed attack,” stressing that attacks against civilians are unacceptable under any circumstances.

Three weeks after police assaulted two Catholic priests and tribal women in a village in eastern Odisha, Church leaders say the Hindu-leaning state government has not taken any action against the attackers. Father Joshi George, parish priest in Juba village of Gajapati dis-trict, told on April 15 that they have “not heard from the police or any government officials” about any action taken regarding the March 22 incident. Police assaulted George, his assistant Father Dayanand Nayak, and several women cleaning the parish church in what was described as a targeted attack on Christians. George said a police team led by woman police officer Joshna Roy “singularly targeted Christians in the villages whereas the Hindus were let off.” The priest said the state’s inaction, even after three weeks, supports the argument that it was a targeted move. “Police have filed a false case of selling marijuana against a Catholic teacher of a government-run school in a neighboring village. He has been now suspended from his job, while a Hindu teacher detained by the police has been let off,” George said. Police used a lathi – a long, heavy bamboo stick – to beat up people “and molested women belonging to a tribal community as they barged into” the church premises said a fact-finding team in an April 13 report titled “Police turned from Protectors to Perpetrators.” “There is a palpable sense of fear, insecurity, and disbelief among the children, women, and two Catholic priests. This does not bode well for the administration,” the report stated. “This is the first time in the recorded history of the state” that police targeted, beat, and paraded Catholic priests, the report said.

The Hindu-majority Meitei community in northeast India’s restive Manipur state have called off an annual religious pilgrimage to sacred hills following an alleged threat from predominantly Christian tribals in the area, according to sources. The Meitei people scrapped their pilgrimage to the Thangjing Hills in tribal-dominated Churachandpur district on April 14 after the tribal community vowed to oppose access to the area, the unnamed sources said. Animosity between the state’s Meitei and tribal groups has resulted in sectarian violence since May 2023 that has left more than 260 people dead and about 60,000 displaced. Most victims were tribal Christians. Some Church leaders expressed dismay over the tough stance taken by the tribal groups. “It would have been a good occasion for promoting goodwill and brotherhood,” a Church leader based in the state capital Imphal told on April 15 on condition of anonymity. “We cannot restore peace without dialogue and any act that aggravates hostilities and ill will should be avoided,” added another Christian leader who also wished to remain anonymous. Local sources say young Meitei reached the buffer zone that divides the Imphal Valley where most Meitei live, and hilly areas dominated by tribal people on April 14. But they returned home after security forces and their elders told them to go back following a threat from the tribals. Meitei people consider the Thangjing Hills as being a scared religious site. Every April, during Cheiraobab — the Meitei New Year they trek to the hills to offer prayers to their deity, Lainingthou Sanamahi.

Indian Catholic nun Eliswa Vakayil, known as a champion of women’s rights, has moved closer to sainthood after Pope Francis published a decree authorizing her and five others to be declared blessed. Francis approved the decree to beatify the 19th-century nun during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, on April 14, according to Vatican News. As part of the procedure, Francis approved a miracle attributed to Eliswa Vakayil (1831–1913), from Kerala state of southern India, is popularly known as Mother Eliswa of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She founded the first indigenous Carmelite religious order for women known as the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1866. It was later renamed as the Teresian Carmelite Sisters. Vakayil was married at the age of 16 and gave birth to a daughter named Anna before entering religious life. The sudden illness and death of her husband changed the course of her life. Her daughter was just 18 months old then, according to a report by the Vatican’s Fides news agency. She took refuge in silent prayer and service to the needy in the community. She started frequenting the Blessed Sacrament and other forms of spiritual nourishment. In 1862, about 12 years after her husband’s death, she expressed her desire to join religious life to her parish priest. Four years later, she joined the Carmelite congregation, a feat soon followed by her daughter Anna and her younger sister Thresia.